Public school districts coast to coast adopting radical curriculum from org named for 60s radical

Community schools across the country are directing teachers to use curriculum guidance from a nonprofit that teaches American history through the lens of racial and sexual oppression The Zinn Coaching Project ZEP named for the late radical s professor Howard Zinn pushes controversial information and lesson plans to teachers for students as young as pre-K all the way up to grade ZEP boasts that its curriculum has been adopted by more than teachers who have downloaded more than lessons for their students according to its website The organization hosts a Teach Truth Day of Action annually which is co-sponsored by the NEA America's largest teachers union and other organizations Zinn who died in taught at Boston University from the early s until his retirement in He was the author of A People s History of the United States a book that teaches American history beginning with Christopher Columbus' discovery of North America and into the st century through a lens of racial and sexual oppression The principles in his book serve as the benchmark for ZEP's lessons CLICK HERE FOR MORE CAMPUS RADICALS COAST TO COASTIn Zinn described himself as Something of an anarchist something of a socialist Maybe a democratic socialist New York City Populace Schools the largest school district in the country encourages teachers to use ZEP support to teach during Black History Month Women s History Month Disability Pride Month and Pride Month The Zinn Guidance Project also has compiled lesson ideas and relevant primary sources into a asset called 'Teaching with Seizing Freedom' that educators can use in their classrooms alongside the podcast a Black History tools page on the school system's website says CRITICS SAY K- ETHNIC STUDIES PUSH TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT CISHETERONORMATIVITY BLACK PANTHER PARTYThe Teaching with Seizing Freedom podcast is described by ZEP as an ideal pool to introduce students to the imaginative defiant methods that Black people sought and enacted freedom throughout U S history and brings to life voices that are often muted in textbooks For Disability Pride Month the school system directs teachers to ZEP guidance that include an article titled Quick Techniques to Analyze Children s Books for Ableism In the Chicago Community Schools system a page called Equity Tools alongside other social justice materials from other organizations like Implicit Bias and Structural Racialization from the National Equity Project ZEP is mentioned as a reservoir The citizens school system links to the ZEP homepage BOMBSHELL ASSESSMENT EXPOSES 'DEEPLY CONCERNING' MIDWEST UNIVERSITY INITIATIVE PUSHING FAR-LEFT K- LESSON PLANSSimilarly Portland Constituents Schools in Oregon directs teachers and students to ZEP for information on Black History Month The ZEP site has webpages of guidance for teaching Black History Month A summary on the ZEP page on Black History Month recommends a book called The Real Ebonics Debate Power Language and the Learning of African-American Children That book summary describes ebonics as the distinctive language of a large number of African-American children and emphasizes urgency for teachers to learn to engage with discussions about ebonics In Berkeley California a teaching store guide for kindergartners through eighth grade links to the same Black History Month ZEP page FACILITATOR UNION SENDS MAP ERASING ISRAEL TO ITS MILLIONS OF MEMBERS FOR 'INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY'In Columbus City Schools in Columbus Ohio gave summer homework to eighth graders that demonized Christopher Columbus for mass murder of the Ta no people It accuses other history textbooks of erasing the Ta no people The lesson was from ZEP and included a quiz for students after they read the material Columbus' practices of enslavement terrorism and ultimately mass murder are shocking For that reason it is tempting to focus only on Ta no deaths the lesson says However those deaths can seem abstract and distant unless we learn something about Ta no lives ZEP's website is full of colorful testimonials from teachers around the country including Sarah Giddings identified as a middle school social studies tutor from Mesa Arizona Giddings used ZEP guidance to teach her students about circumstances change The culminating activity involved having my students participate in a mock trial based on Bill Bigelow s role play activity Who s to Blame for the Surroundings Situation ' Giddings' testimonial says By this point of our assessment my students were emotionally and intellectually invested and were genuinely curious as to what or who is responsible for the environmental emergency I ve used the Zinn Instruction Project s materials since my first year teaching says a testimonial from Corey Wincester described as a high school history guide from Evanston Ill Nine years later my students can speak to the power of deconstructing the narratives of Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln s efforts that have replicated white supremacy and marginalization of people of color in historical discourse None of the school districts mentioned returned a request for comment